The Peacemakers: Arms and Adventure in the American West

By Robert L Wilson

Beginning with Native American primitive weaponry, The Peacemakers presents a comprehensive panorama from Lewis and Clark and their historic expedition, through subsequent trailblazing explorers, traders and mountain men, to the Army, the gold and silver miners, gunfighters, gamblers, outlaws, frontier madams and their soiled doves, to peace officers, cowboys and ranchers, as well as sodbusters, shopkeepers and the agents of Wells Fargo, hunters and gentlemen-sportsmen, Wild West showmen and women, to the Western stars of stage, screen, radio, and television.

A final chapter provides insights and revelations on collecting arms and related treasures of the frontier. Designed as a companion volume to the bestselling Winchester: An American Legend and Colt: An American Legend, The Peacemakers matches those award-winning books with a fresh and breathtaking look at the extraordinary variety of Western arms.

In stark contrast to the primitive Native American weapons of the time, the mechanical marvels of the time changed the course of history. These weapons were created by Colt, Winchester, Smith & Wesson, Remington, Marlin, Sharps, Henry Deringer, Hawken, the U.S. armories and subcontractors, and small-shop private gunmakers. This book also includes other weapons of the era, like the ubiquitous Bowie knife, and more-many elegantly embellished knives including some by Tiffany & Co.

Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for hunters and firearms enthusiasts. We publish books about shotguns, rifles, handguns, target shooting, gun collecting, self-defense, archery, ammunition, knives, gunsmithing, gun repair, and wilderness survival. We publish books on deer hunting, big game hunting, small game hunting, wing shooting, turkey hunting, deer stands, duck blinds, bowhunting, wing shooting, hunting dogs, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Release date: Nov 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781510709256

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

INDIANS: ARMS AND

THE FIRST AMERICANS

The Emperor Napoleon’s sale of the Louisiana Territory played a vital role in the westward expansion of the youthful United States. This signal event symbolized the shift in power from France, Spain, and Great Britain to the fledging nation, and was the beginning of the end of Indian domination of the American West.

Slowly but surely, the tribes of the West would be crushed into submission. First came the explorers, the missionaries, the entrepreneurs—Spaniards and Russians, French and English, and the Americans. The dawn of the nineteenth century saw the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–06), followed by Zebulon Pike, and soon the near-legendary mountain men. Slowly but surely, the cornucopia of the Great West opened to reveal a wealth in natural resources and grandeur that was an irresistible magnet to Easterners and to emigrants and adventurers from around the world.

Against this onslaught the Indian was doomed. His traditional weapons—the war club, tomahawk, lance, and bow and arrow—were fearsome at close range, but a poor match for the white man’s muskets, rifles, pistols, and even cannon.

Native American ingenuity and access to new weapons led to an improvement in arms and equipment for fighting and hunting, but never in a sufficiently organized, effective sense.

Superior firepower, and sheer numbers, would prevail. Although the Indian tribes had the advantage of knowing their habitat intimately, that in time was negated by the force of arms and men of the U.S. Army and in the organized and well-armed masses of pioneers. Mountain men and traders, their numbers limited, were dependent on an uncanny sense of self-preservation. Many were inclined to take up Indian ways to save their fur trade, and themselves.

Detail from later image.

Sioux bow, of self or single-peice construction, with bow and quiver case, beaded buffalo horn used for warpoint; c. 1880s. Bows and arrows present difficulty in dating since they changed little over generations.

Sioux possible bag, c. 1880. With selection of Plains Indian hunting arrows.

Hunting buffaloes with white wolf skins as camouflage. Watercolor by George Catlin, c. 1840. How an Indian might shoot a buffalo from horseback with a muzzle-loading rifle was described by Solomon Carvalho, who accompanied John Charles Frémont’s expedition of 1853–54: A Delaware Indian [sited in Kansas], in hunting buffaloes, when near enough to shoot, rests his rifle on his saddle, balances himself in the stirrup on one leg; the other is thrown over the rifle to steady it. He then leans on one side, until his eye is on a level with the object, takes a quick sight and fires while riding at full speed, rarely missing his mark, and seldom chasing one animal further than a mile.

War Now. War Forever.

The Shawnee warrior Tecumseh was a forceful advocate of Indian resistance. With his brother, Tenskwatawa, a coalition of Midwestern tribes was organized. Tecumseh set the stage for resistance to the white man, a long-playing tragedy which would dominate much of the nineteenth century: Burn their dwellings. Destroy their stock. The red people own the country. He went on to call for War now. War forever. War upon the living. War upon the dead; dig up their corpses from the grave; our country must give no rest to a white man’s bones.

Tecumseh’s forces, the Creek Confederacy, numbered upward of 15,000 warriors. The death of Tecumseh and ultimate defeat of the Creeks, signified by the Treaty of Ghent (ending the War of 1812), were the death knells of Indian nationalism. After 1815, the Indian’s fate was sealed. Western Indians would fight on, but resistance by the last Indian tribes would effectively be quelled by 1890.

What had taken the white newcomers some 200 years east of the Mississippi would require only about a century west of the Mississippi. Thomas Jefferson, who was sympathetic to the Indians’ plight, had anticipated hundreds of years for the process.

Spain’s sale of her American property and claims east of the Mississippi (1819) added to the U.S. grip on the West. William Henry Harrison represented popular sentiment when he said: Is one of the fairest portions of the globe to remain in a state of nature, the haunt of a few wretched savages, when it seems destined by the Creator to a large population and to be the seat of civilization?

A policy of forced removal saw such scandalous events as the Trail of Tears, along which some 15,000 Cherokees were forcibly moved, most on foot, from Georgia to Oklahoma. It is estimated that as many as 1,500 died in the trek, overseen by troops under General Winfield Scott. Other tribes were also forcibly removed into the West. Often tribes native to the new areas were hostile toward the interlopers and opposed them by the same violent means used against whites.

Pre–Civil War Indian hostilities in the West were of such breadth and scope that they are not easily categorized. Post–Civil War encounters are another matter: these were the wars of the Great Plains and adjacent Texas and the Rocky Mountains, the great Southwest of New Mexico, Arizona, and environs, and the Northwest.

Catlin pen-and-ink drawing, in which bows and arrows, war clubs, lances, tomahawks, and knives are all in hand. Scalp, held aloft at lower right.

The Pursuit, by Currier & Ives, 1856. The red man’s lance versus the single-shot pistol of the frontiersman, also armed with a half-stock plains rifle.

Nostalgic Cheyennes Among the Buffalo, crayon-and-ink drawing from ledger sketchbook by Montana-Wyoming Indian, done while incarcerated in Florida, c. 1880. A handful of such books are known; this one is from collection of Brigadier General E. D. Townsend, who retired from Army at about time drawings were made.

Changes in the federal government’s Indian policy during the nineteenth century were influenced by such factors as rapid westward movement of population, added U.S. territories, the California gold rush and California’s statehood, and the development of the Overland Trail. Moving the Indians out of the way led to forced containment on reservations. To say that the majority of negotiated treaties were unfair to the Indians is an understatement. The attempted containment on reservations was a major cause of Indian resistance.

The Civil War offered a glimpse of hope to the Indians, and 15,000 fought on the side of the Confederate States of America. About 3,000 were recruited to fight for the Union. The Confederacy made some concessions to the Indians, while the preoccupation of the Union forces dealing with the South allowed several uprisings in Western areas where troop strengths were reduced. Over 500 settlers in Minnesota were killed in an uprising by the Sioux, led by Chief Little Crow. In response, General John Pope (recently defeated at Second Bull Run) launched a campaign summed up by such statements as It is my purpose utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the power to do so. They were to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as people with whom treaties or compromises can be made. Thirty-eight of the Indians were executed: 303 had been condemned to hang, but most had their sentences commuted by a compassionate President Lincoln.

A second uprising during the Civil War was by the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of the Colorado Territory, in response to gold and silver mining begun in the 1850s. Hostilities by the Indians led to the infamous Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, a dawn attack by Colonel John M. Chivington and the 3rd Colorado Cavalry. Despite being greeted by Chief Black Kettle raising the American flag and a white flag of surrender, Chivington ordered the slaughter of men, women, and children. The senseless carnage was a low point in the national conflict between whites and Indians. Of Black Kettle’s village of 500, some 300 managed to survive.

Chivington’s brutality backfired, inspiring the Indians to a renewed vigor. It would take another twenty-five years of unrest before most of the Indians of the West would be pummeled and coerced into submission.

Large-scale Indian victories in the West were few and far between. Easily the most dramatic was that at the Little Bighorn, popularly known as Custer’s Last Stand, or the Custer Massacre. The aftermath for the Indians was a renewed intensity of the white onslaught, particularly by a shaken U.S. Army.

Although direct confrontations between whites and Indians were not infrequent, there was a subtle and more effective means to undermine the Indians of the Plains: elimination of the buffalo herds.

The end of the Civil War found America an industrial giant, with an experienced armed force and hardened veterans who could homestead on land available from the government. Further, there was the appeal of mining, commerce, and all the other elements of conquering the most vital continent on the face of the earth. Great fortunes would be made, and a uniquely American adventure would unfold.

Great Lakes pipe tomahawk of c. 1840, upper right, with iron bowl and spontoon blade; iron tacks, and braided Germantown yarn drop or lanyard. Lower right, eastern Plains tomahawk, with iron and brass head, c. 1860. The elaborate, heavy pipe tomahawk at left is from late nineteenth century; steel blade inserted in brass head. Articulated Comanche horse stick, bottom center, and beaded Blackfoot leggings are c. 1860.

Ojibwa knife and sheath, Michigan, c. 1830–50, at right loom-beaded and with silk edging, contrasts with Plains weaponry: Sioux war club, c. 1880, has carved face at ball and spike end, grip bound with braided, dyed quills. At center, mountain man knife with beaver tail sheath, c. 1850. Stone war club has fetish and cowrie-shell drop; Blackfoot, nineteenth century. Beaded horse blanket from Nez Pierce, c. 1860.

Accompanied by a Cheyenne pipe bag at left (c. 1880) and a Flathead pipe bag (colored with red ocher) at right (c. 1860), the tomahawks are all of the Plains Indian Wars period, with the Blackfoot at right wrapped in brass wire, and of c. 1860.

Somewhat stylized Indian, shot at close range by frontiersman, armed with a Colt revolver; Currier & Ives, 1858. Stag-handled Bowie knife on shooter’s belt. Lance, bow, and shield on ground at right.

The Indian, in the minds of many, would be in the way. Policy dictated that the tribes must accept containment or be dealt with militarily.

The post–Civil War years proved the warrior prowess of the Plains tribes, which conducted successful raids and easily evaded their military antagonists. An attempted peace conference at Fort Laramie (spring 1866) led to Sioux Chief Red Cloud’s comment on the government’s request for free use of the Bozeman Trail: Great Father sends us presents and wants new road, but White Chief goes with soldiers to steal the road before Indians can say yes or no! At that point the chief and his warriors abruptly departed in disgust. The government Indian agent nevertheless concluded a treaty, but it was not signed by those who could have held their people in check.

Red Cloud and his forces responded with repeated attacks, and Fort Phil Kearney on the Bozeman Trail (headquarters for commanding Colonel Henry B. Carrington) would be under siege more than any other U.S. post, of any period.

A clear-cut victory for the Indians was the Fetterman Fight (December 1866), in which Crazy Horse and his men lured Captain William J. Fetterman and eighty men into an expertly orchestrated ambush. Crazy Horse’s decoys led the impetuous and foolhardy Fetterman over a hill and straight into a force of 2,000 Dakota and Cheyenne warriors. To a man the command was annihilated, in the space of about half an hour. Even a dog accompanying Fetterman’s column was killed. One of the warriors had shouted, Do not let even a dog get away!

Terrified at the thought of a slow death by torture, Fetterman and Captain Frederick H. Brown took their own lives with their revolvers. Other men were so horrified they were killed without fighting back. Two civilians with Fetterman had been armed with Henry repeating rifles. Around their bodies were expended cartridges (50 by one of them), and one of them had no less than 105 arrows in his body.

The Fetterman Massacre led the federal government to attempt to improve its conduct of Indian affairs. The Bozeman Trail was closed, forts were abandoned, and other attempts were made to pacify Red Cloud and his forces. Another treaty was signed, and more Indians joined reservations—this time in the Dakota Territory.

The Fetterman debacle also helped in cleaning up the generally unprincipled bureaucracy of federal Indian agents. Even George Armstrong Custer had been appalled by the corruption. But the Bureau of Indian Affairs would remain largely unchanged until the turn of the century.

Besides the slaughter of the buffalo and military confrontations, another powerful influence on the Indians was what they saw in Midwestern and Eastern cities on junkets organized by the federal government. In such places, teaming with so many whites and burgeoning with technology, the power of the Great Father and his people was overwhelmingly evident.

Demonstrations by huge cannon and Gatling guns made an impression. Visits to the Washington, D.C., arsenal revealed guns by the tens of thousands. However, most of the Indians became homesick, and urged their hosts to complete the tour quickly, so the delegations could get back to their homes and families in the West.

Conquest by Kindness was the official federal government Indian policy following the Civil War. However, such events as the Fetterman fight and the murder of General E. R. S. Canby and Peace Commissioner Eleasar Thomas by Modoc Indians under a flag of truce (April 1873) contributed to a return to hostilities. Raids in Texas by Kiowa and Comanche tribes, from the reservation near Fort Sill, Indian Territory, led to the Army’s becoming more active in Indian affairs. Thereafter until the 1880s the Indians who refused reservation life were dealt with summarily.

Displayed on a Sioux saddle cloth are, from left, Plains ball-headed war club with iron spike and five tomahawks of western Plains, from 1850 to the 1870s; curved blade example at right rare. Far right, knife sheaths with skinning knives. Lower left, Beaver tail general-purpose knives. Heads and blades obtained from traders; the lower knife marked on blade with New York maker’s name. Tacks obtained from traders, also taken from travel chests and luggage of victims.

Jicarilla Apache Shee-zah-nan-tan, holding half-stock muzzle-loader; breech wrapped with rawhide, as is Brown Bess musket at left, converted from flintlock to percussion, the stock cut down, and barrel reduced to 31-inch length. Some shortened lengths were the result of burst barrels; the warrior would simply cut the barrel behind the point of bursting. Knife made by Indian from military sword by shortening blade and cutting off knuckle bow.

Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn was bad timing for the Indians. Falling just prior to the opening of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia—designed to demonstrate America’s might to the world—the annihilation of Custer proved both a tragedy and an embarrassment. Only the crushing of the Indians would dispel this blight on the nation’s international image, or so it was felt by many in power at the time.

Innumerable instances of the heroic resistance of native tribes are recorded. Celebrated in literature and film, and in the lore of Indian descendants, is the fight for freedom of Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce tribe. Known to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the tribe had a long history of peace, and had never killed a white. A dispute with squatters led to the killing of four whites (1877). To escape their pursuers, Joseph and his band of 800 headed for Canada from Oregon, eluding, defeating, and fighting to a draw the U.S. Army along the way. The campaign offers a case study in military strategy and won Joseph’s Nez Perce the respect of their adversaries.

Part of their route cut through Yellowstone National Park (to the surprise of tourists). Finally General Nelson A. Miles forced a surrender. Some 300 of the Nez Perce reached Canada shortly before Chief Joseph made his famous statement: … It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death…. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

Flintlock trade muskets (top marked by U.S. maker), with Plains Indian tomahawk, its haft decorated with brass tacks and by branding with red-hot file. Scalp lock from red-haired human kill. Artifacts rest on buffalo hide. English-made trade guns continued to have the lion’s share of the Western market until c. 1840. With the support of federal government contracts, this changed to American domination, particularly by such makers as Henry Deringer, Jr., Henry E. Leman, and George and Edward Tryon.

Tack-embellished knife sheaths, two with scarce and elaborate matching belts. Human scalp lock sewn to flannel patch with cross motif. Plains Indians, c. 1860–80.

Members of the Chiricahua Apache tribe were the final organized body of Indians fighting the government in the early to middle 1880s.* Raiders along the Mexican border could simply escape across the border when they were pursued by either Mexican or American units. Eventually a treaty was signed with Mexico which eliminated that advantage.

It was General Nelson A. Miles who was responsible for ending the Apache menace. After a determined campaign, Miles was able to ship off the offending Apaches and their relatives to camps in Florida. The famed Chief Geronimo was one of the last to surrender, and he too was exiled to Florida.

Fierce and courageous fighters that they were, the Native American warriors struck absolute terror in the hearts of their victims. Troopers are known to have committed suicide rather than endure the torture they could expect from their captors.

On the other hand, atrocities were perpetrated by so-called civilized troops, and among the most barbaric were those of Colonel Chivington’s men at Sand Creek. An eyewitness stated that Indians were scalped, their brains knocked out … men … ripped open women, clubbed little children … Chivington displayed some one hundred Indian scalps on a Denver stage, before an audience of applauding whites.

The culmination of the Great Plains wars is symbolized by the tragic death of Sitting Bull and a mass killing at Wounded Knee, December 1890. Such leaders as holy man and chief Sitting Bull had incited Indian revolt. Look at me he said to an assemblage of reservation Indians. See if I am poor, or my people either…. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hard-tack, and a little sugar and coffee. Sitting Bull was killed by Indian police, December 15, 1890.

Two weeks later, at Wounded Knee, the 7th Cavalry avenged their defeat at the Little Bighorn by firing into several hundred Indians. Deluded by the Ghost Dance mystics who claimed protection from soldiers’ bullets, the Indians had refused to be disarmed. The slaughter wiped out more than 200 men, women, and children. Not a few wounded were left on the battlefield; they froze to death the next evening in a blizzard.

Except for isolated incidents, the Indian Wars were over.

Trade musket at top acquired by collector on an Indian reservation; barrel engraved in script, Montreal; among silver overlays are beavers, a snake, turtle (other side), cross, bleeding heart, and fleur-de-lis. Skin repair at wrist; c. 1800. Treasured objects, guns would pass down through generations. Trade rifle at bottom by Leman, with lock dated 1840, in .50 caliber, stock artificially striped for added appeal. Profits from trading a Northwest Gun, as the type came to be called, were substantial. From the winter of 1812–13, such a gun from the Pacific Fur Company post, Spokane, would trade for at least twenty beaver pelts. Wholesale a gun would run £120 shillings; the value of the pelts was approximately £25!

Indian pride survived and the warrior traditions continued to modern times through service in the U.S. Army and other armed services. Herman J. Viola’s After Columbus quotes a modern-day Ute: We Indians are grateful that the United States became such a militaristic country because it has provided us with an acceptable way to continue our warrior ways. During the Vietnam War, while thousands of young Americans fled the country to avoid military service (mainly heading to Canada), not a few Canadian Indians came to the United States to enlist. As in past wars, including World Wars I and II, the presence of Indians in fighting units tended to ensure high fighting morale.

The Indians’ bows, arrows, trade muskets, and other largely nineteenth-century firearms have been replaced by high-tech modern weaponry, like the Colt M-16 rifle. But that Indian spirit and fighting instinct, courage and pride, remain—all are components in the present rejuvenation of the Indian peoples in America, symbolized by the Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of the American Indian, on the Mall in Washington, D.C., and the revitalization of the Heye Foundation as the National Museum of the American Indian, New York City.

Plains Indian artifacts. Tomahawk attributed to Joseph Jourdain, c. 1855, its pipe bowl forged from rifled gun barrel. Beaded drop of sewn calico. Rifle by Henry E. Leman, .50 caliber, with 31-inch barrel; rawhide repair to shattered forestock. No aperture for ramrod; ball would be spit into barrel while hunting buffalo from horseback; c. 1850. Breastplate of hair pipe. Quirt with brass-tacked wooden handle. Trade knife with skull and horseshoe mark, believed early work of the renowned Russell; sheath of buffalo hide.

Scarce presentation rifle for an Indian chief; made by Leman. Silver-mounted, engraved with bow, arrow, and pipe tomahawk on the toe-plate; marked U.S. on the barrel, and with an ordnance inspector’s mark behind the sideplate.

Bows and Arrows

The warrior tradition was instilled in Indian children from birth. From childhood, Indian boys played with bows and arrows, the scaled-down sizes often made by fathers for their sons. The boys could shoot moving targets with uncanny accuracy. For most Indians of the West, hunting was a way of life, and to some, so was warfare.

Firearms were early introduced to Indians, but a proliferation of guns did not occur until the nineteenth century, when they were supplied by traders, taken as trophies of war and in raids on whites, and even given or issued by the U.S. government.

Bows and arrows would remain as common weapons. In retreat from battles, guns might be abandoned, but not bows and arrows. As breechloaders and repeating guns came in vogue, however, bows and arrows tended to assume a role primarily as backup.

By 1875, many older warriors had guns of rather high quality and serviceability—such as the Winchester 1866 and 1873 lever-actions at the Little Bighorn. Ammunition, however, would remain scarce, and the Indians lacked the tools and mechanical ability for most repairs.

Exactly how Indians held the bow and bowstring and released their arrows is unknown. There were various holds with fingers, thumbs, and hands. Chief Plenty Coups described shooting an arrow, which was best done from the right-hand side of the bow:

Both hands and both arms must work together—at once. The left must push and the right must pull at the same time if an arrow is to go straight or far. The [right] hand, palm toward one, its fingers straddling the arrow, must know and keep the center of the bowstring without the eyes having to look.

The design and manufacture of arrows was important, with the straightness of each arrow paramount. Shafts were given identifying markings in paint, so an archer’s affiliation and person could be identified. The type of feathers also could serve to determine a tribe.

For shooting practice, buffalo chips were useful, and could be rolled for moving targets. Boys sought first to develop distance, then worked on precision and accuracy.

Experienced archers could shoot with speed and force. A mortal wound could be made from twenty yards, and as many as eight arrows could be kept in the air simultaneously, with arching shots. There was such force in the snapping bowstring that a gauntlet was needed for wrist and arm protection. The bow hand also gripped a cluster of arrows (tips pointed downward) for quick reloading. Extra arrows could also be held in the mouth, plus the customary quiver.

Though most of life was spent in his native Florida, Billy Bowlegs was one of thousands of Indians to be relocated West. In 1858 he and a number of fellow Seminoles moved to Oklahoma. During Civil War served with the rank of captain, 1st Regiment, Indian Home Guard, a Kansas unit. Contemporary with long-running Seminole War are Colt Paterson, capper, and combination tool at top and bottom right, and New England rifle. Note peace medal worn in a daguerreotype of 1852, and U.S.-issue sword chief is holding. The model 1860 saber represents the Civil War era.

Brass tacks and signs of hard use, and the beaded sheath, identify this Model 1841 U.S. Mississippi rifle as an Indian service arm. Firing a .54-caliber projectile, gun could readily kill a buffalo.

Trade musket at bottom contrasts with government contract trade flintlock gun, of more graceful construction and with longer barrel. Commercial production of Indian trade guns from American makers went to Western market. These were referred to as Lancaster pattern (as in the Leman pictured above) and English pattern. The former were of Kentucky rifle styling, the latter on lines of contemporary English inexpensive sporting guns (as on top gun shown here). These arms were of sufficient quality to also attract white trappers as end-users. The flintlock Northwest guns were still in production as late as the 1870s, even though many Indians had switched to breech loaders and to various types of repeating firearms. Plains tomahawk with file-burned handle; chief’s war bonnet, of the late 1870s.

Indian rifle at top built with Paterson Colt rifle barrel, crude stock, and military flintlock and triggerguard; evidence of native ingenuity. Kentucky rifle, .44 caliber, by Nathan Kile, c. 1817, of Raccoon Creek, Ohio; went west in mid-nineteenth century. An Indian chief admired this beautiful gun, and so the owner, Daniel Defenbaugh, reportedly slept with it! Cover on barrel eliminated glare while shooting in sunlight.

Cleverly made by an Indian, percussion pistol has antler stock, secured to barrel by wire. From the Dakota Territory.

Indians preferred to be as close to their prey as possible, to conserve arrows and avoid wasted shots. Young archers would graduate from flint to iron arrowheads as they gained shooting skills.*

Lances

As backup to the bow and arrow, Plains Indians relied on lances, tomahawks, clubs, and knives. Firearms became increasingly important, but they were generally more difficult to obtain and maintain, and they demanded skills not all Indians could master.

Lances for hunting, primarily for buffalo on horseback, typically were tipped in iron (about 10 inches or more) and measured between 7 and 9 feet long, with wood hafts from 1 to nearly 3 inches in diameter. The hunter would ride up next to the buffalo, and thrust the lance deeply into a point just behind the shoulder or behind the rib cage. Then the hunter would hang on to the lance and try to ride alongside the buffalo for a short while. Then he would pull out the lance and move on to another buffalo. Decor for hunting lances was plain, though some bore brass or iron tacks, feathers, and paint.

Lances for war were generally smaller in diameter (5/8 inch to 11/4 inches) and shorter (6 1/2 to 7 1/2 feet), and were elaborately decorated. Decorative materials ranged from animal-hide wrappings (strong and fast beasts, like beaver, weasel, mink, and otter), colorful cloths, beads, fringes, feathers from eagles or other birds, and tacks. Horsehair streamers might be attached to the butt. Scalps might also be attached, or colorful ribbons.

Like the Knights of the Round Table, the Indian lancer held his weapon under the arm, secured and aimed by the hand. The closer one could be to the enemy or animal, the better. Lances could also be held in two hands above the head for jabbing. Throwing was an alternative; such lances would have a feather spiral decor running the shaft’s length.

Apertures or thongs on the lance allowed for attaching to the horse and for ease in holding. Seasoned wood was needed for the lance, preferably ash, hickory, ironwood, oak, or white elm. Although stone and bone were first used, the iron tip was preferred, and came to the tribes from traders or blacksmiths. Tips came in a variety of shapes and sizes; some were knife blades. On the warpath, by horse, not a few warriors carried lances. These were held in the hands, or attached across the warrior’s back, or attached to the saddle.

Cannon, a wounded horse, guns, lances, bow and arrows, bullets, and at lower left the staff (to identify assistant leaders in a war party) are evident in this scene of a